Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law arraigned

A son-in-law of Osama bin Laden and spokes man of terrorist group, al-Qaeda, pleaded not guilty yesterday to terrorism charges in a New York court.

Suleiman Abu Ghaith, who is charged with conspiracy to kill US citizens, appeared in court during a 15-minute hearing.

He arrived in the US on March 1 after being arrested on February 28 in Turkey.

He could be sentenced to life imprisonment, if found guilty.

During the arraignment yesterday, US District Judge, Lewis A Kaplan, appointed public defenders for Ghaith.

The defence urged the court to adjourn the case to early April in order to give the defence enough time to study the unclassified discovery submitted by the prosecution.

The discovery contains a 22-page statement Ghaith made after he was detained and a number of video and audio recordings when speaking on behalf of al-Qaeda.

Sitting between his defence lawyers, Ghaith seemed resigned as the translator read the charges against him.

Ghaith, who is married to one of Bin Laden’s daughters, had been part of al-Qaeda since May 2001, the Justice Department said in the indictment revealed on Thursday.

He urged others to swear allegiance to the terrorist group and acted as the group’s spokesman, warning of attacks similar to those of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington, the charges against him read.

In a video on September 12, 2001, Ghaith appeared along al-Qaeda leaders and told Americans that “a great army is gathering against you,” Kaplan quoted the prosecution as saying yesterday.

In the video, he was seated by Bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda at the time, and with Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current leader of the group.

He called on Muslims to battle “the Jews, Christians and Americans”.

He later warned the US that “the storms shall not stop, especially the airplanes storm”.